Halsey dropped a new track on Thursday, and it's a big gulp of hot tea. The stand alone song, "Without Me," is her first new song since her 2017 album, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. Speaking to Zane Lowe on Beats 1, Halsey revealed the track is, in fact, about her on-again, off-again relationship with G-Eazy.
"Here I have this record where it's just me," Halsey said. "No wig, no colorful hair, no character, and it's about my life and about my relationship that the world has watched so closely and so vehemently like in the past year and a half. My fans are really going to be like whoa [at] all the video content, everything behind the song is just me. It's me in a white T-shirt with normal hair, singing to the camera. No character, no cinematography, no gunfight, or car explosion."
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She went on to explain that the track was her first time writing as Ashley, her given name, rather than Halsey, whom she indicates she considers a character. And, for her, that was not easy.
"It kind of gave me like an existential crisis as an artist a little bit, because I've prided myself on being an artist who's authentic and writes about her life and all that stuff," Halsey said. "Then when I made this and I felt just how bad it hurt."
She didn't indicate if G-Eazy was working on new music, but she was clear that this isn't an album song. Rather, it's a song that just had to come out, even though she's been taking time off and was most recently on vacation in Italy with G-Eazy for her birthday.
Halsey announced the two were taking time apart in July, but they appeared to reunite by September when they started popping up in each others Insta feeds and performed their duet, "Him & I" together on his Endless Summer tour. And somewhere in the middle of all of that was some drama around her allegedly dating Machine Gun Kelly (which she denies), that led to a beef track between G-Eazy and Kelly, who are, presumably, former friends or new best enemies.
Though her lyrics make it seem like he instigated the breakup, she doesn't want feedback from the world on their relationship or their reunion.
"...I've beaten myself up about what people think about me and about what people think about [my relationship]. And so in a weird way like this relationship has been one of the most liberating thing that's ever happened to me, because it made me put my phone down and go I don't care what you think because this makes me happy," Halsey said.